March 30, 2014

A Blessed, Productive Sunday

March 30, 2014

It has been a very good day.  Sunday School this morning was great.  The only bad thing is that some of our Winter Texans are heading home.  We hate to see them go, but they have families up North who miss them a lot, so we are just glad they spend part of their year with us. 

In Sunday School this quarter (of the year) we are studying in the book of Proverbs.  There is so much wisdom and information in Proverbs.  It is one of my favorite books.  It is good to be able to hear most of my husband's teaching on these great passages from the Bible.

In church, our pastor is still out of the country.  He will be returning in the next couple of days from 16 days in the Philippines doing disaster relief work along with 4 or 5 other men from our church.  We are eager to hear their reports when they get back.  Filling the pulpit in his absence is one of my favorite ministers, Darrell Mortalla, who just happens to be from the Philippines.  Darrell is an amazing Bible teacher and also does a great job of adding humor to his messages.  I was not able to hear all of the sermon, but followed along well enough to get the basic message.  Wish I could have heard it all.

Ron and I picked up some lunch on our way home after we ran an errand.  After lunch I gave in to a nap.  As I have mentioned before, I hate to do that because then it is hard to go to sleep at night, but I was tired. 

After my nap, Ron decided he would help cut back the bougainvillea bushes!  Yea!  We both worked.  He cut and I hauled.  He also took out two mimosa trees that were behind the bushes he was trimming.  I told him I did a neater trimming job than he did, but he worked much faster.  That is probably all we will do.  There is one more, but it is not hanging out into the street. 

As we worked a flock of small birds flew into the trees and chattered away at us.  I think they are migrating.  I did not get a good look, but they did not look familiar.  They were very high in the trees and all we could make out was a yellow tummy.  This was the only photo I got and it is of no help in identifying the noisy little birds.  I am thankful I could hear them.  It was a very pleasant sound.  I hope they show up again.  They were about the size of American Redstarts I think. 

This is one of the bushes that we were cutting back.  It is the only one that was currently in bloom. 

As I worked, I thought of the comment a friend made following my blog a couple of days ago about working on these bushes.  I had not really realized how well I could do the work with my artificial elbow piece.  I was able to rake, lift, carry, and toss debris into the trash pile without any pain or limitations.  There are times most days where I cringe at the pain from lifting something with the arm in an awkward position, but unless that happens, I rarely think about it.  Even a couple of months ago, I would have been hard pressed to do the work I did today in the yard. 

When I went into the backyard to fill the feeders, this Snowy Egret was in one of the trees in the back.  I spent a bit of time in the backyard checking on things.  We picked up our supplies and cleaned up the mess.  I must say, I did hold my breath every time I saw Ron stepping over the extension cord to the chain saw.  It was the same extension cord that I tripped on when I broke my elbow.  He did fine, but when I had worked out there a few days ago I didn't have the extension cord and I still found myself being very careful where I stepped.  A fall happens so quickly.

Inside I started doing some cleaning in my sewing room as I prepare to start a new project.  I had some new storage boxes for my "Projects in Progress" or as Quilters call them "UFOs" Un Finished Objects.  I have a large collection. 

The last of the fabric for the new quilt is in the dryer right now along with the last load of laundry.  I made our version of Sloppy Joe's for supper.  We call the recipe Tavern Burgers.  The name came with the recipe that has been passed through the family for many years.  We had supper and relaxed a little after the yard work.